


The Chronicles of Link, Evan and Rohne

by LilLink



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Anger, Bisexual Character(s), Blood and Violence, Childhood Memories, Depression, Desperation, Explicit Sexual Content, Flawed Character(s), Friendship, Grief, Hate, Hateno Village, Heavy Burdens, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Light BDSM, Love, Multi, Passage of time, Regret, Responsibilities, Revenge, Torture, Youth, apprehension, emotive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:00:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24339295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilLink/pseuds/LilLink
Summary: Set a hundred years prior to the Great Calamity. Link, reincarnation of the legendary hero, member of the Champions, wielder of the Master Sword and Princess Zelda's appointed knight is being relentlessly pursued by the Yiga Clan. Ever since he was raised to knight-hood, not yet a month ago, the group of blood-thirsty bandits' violence has become radical and arbitrary. Any who they think could lead them to his whereabouts they hunt and torture all in hopes of witnessing their King of Thieves' safe return. When the sickening tales of their brutality reach Link, he demands permission to leave the royal guard to warn his two, once closest friends.
Relationships: Link/Original Character(s), Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	The Chronicles of Link, Evan and Rohne

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever time posting a fanfic on this site, so if there is any intricacy I've failed to observe feel free to let me know. This will be an ongoing story that I update regularly. The tags I've used therefore will become more relevant as I continue to write. I hope you enjoy my work!

**Link**

The sun had started to set as Link rode into Hateno village atop his mare, Epona. He slowed her to a gentle canter with a stroke on the neck and a tug on the reins and looked about him, at the place that had once been his world. Instantly a smile curled up his lips. It was just as he remembered it. Every smell, every sight, every sound. Giggling children chased one another over the grass and splashed naked in a river, a woman cried her wares from behind a market-stall, some milkmaids led three cows toward a ranch, people sauntered up and down the street talking and laughing and all was bathed in the warm, golden light of a summer evening. The shops and cottages, the inn and mill were all as charming as ever, with lanterns at their doors, ivy snaking over their bricks and tendrils of smoke rising from their chimneys. To the North of the village, Mount Lanayru rose fierce and black, it’s peaks wreathed in mist. It was lovely as when he had left six years ago, a small boy weeping on the back of his father’s destrier. Link did not know whether that saddened or gladdened him, but he felt safe in the knowledge that the peace here would always endure.   
Folk stared up at him riding Epona as if the Goddess herself had come down from the heavens to walk through their village. He recognised some faces, but they did not seem to recognise his back. The smiles he gave out were returned to him, but the exchange was courteous and cold. _Have I truly changed that much?_ He thought to himself sadly. Perhaps he had. He was nearing the age of wisdom now and a knight besides. His once bright golden hair had darkened and his countenance had grown more guarded and suspicious, his features were wrought of iron - a knight’s training. He recalled that boy he once was dashing over the fields wearing nothing but an oversized tunic and wielding a stick he had scavenged from the nearest woods as a sword. He had not a care in the world, no burdens to bear, no worries to dwell on, just grins and giggles. Link found himself wondering whether he would experience such delightful laxity again.   
Some villagers gasped as they saw the sword of legend sheathed across his back in it’s gilded scabbard. Stories of how the Master Sword came to be had been passed down through so many generations that they had become utterly confused. One account would suggest that the Sword had been forged in the fires of Death Mountain by an ancient sorcerer, while another claimed that a man dressed as a pixie had discovered it deep in the forest. One thing was beyond dispute however; it was the sword that sealed the darkness and the most powerful weapon in all of Hyrule. He who possessed it was tasked with dealing the final blow to Ganon, the demonic spirit that was last defeated ten thousand years ago. Now that the hero and the princess existed together once again, it was rumoured that Ganon would return, and soon. The Divine Beasts were being excavated along with legions of guardians and the princess herself struggled every day to unlock the sealing power that was her birthright, all in hopes of repelling it’s attack.   
Link would usually be with her, he was her appointed knight afterall, however he had insisted that he be given leave to come to Hateno and warn his old friends of the Yiga Clan’s attempts at uncovering his whereabouts. Since Link’s knighting, their violence had grown radical and arbitrary. The group had been indomitable for the Royal military for millenia. Whether that was due to a lack of determination to extinguish their threat once and for all or to the haste of their evasiveness, Link was not certain. Regardless, these days, any who they thought might know the smallest detail about him they would hunt and torture. Sickening tales of their brutality spread like a disease throughout Central Hyrule and ultimately saw that he was permitted to leave the royal guard until the summer solstice. After that, he was expected back to do his duty.   
Link’s heart fluttered in his chest as he made his way further through the town. He would go to Evan first, whom he knew would be at the stables to the far North of the village. He wondered what his friend looked like after all this time. The two had been inseparable since they first met twelve years ago. Link had come to Hateno when he was four and stayed in the home of Evan’s father Lurious until he had left six years later. The two had been closer than brothers, thicker than thieves. Those days and nights had been the best of Link’s life.   
He continued to ride, past the shops and the mill and over the bridge. Silence fell around him as he went by making him feel half a Moblin and wholly nervous. Though Epona’s gait was smooth and her saddle comfortable, he sat taut as bowstring. The ground began to slope steeply and soon he was to the stables, his heart in his throat. He swept a lock of hair back over a pointy ear and breathed deeply through his nose. Will Evan regard me so coldly as all the others? He thought to himself as he dismounted. Link hardly spoke anymore, especially given his royal retinue he felt the need to stay strong and silent. He hoped that would not make him awkward when talking with his old friend.   
He looked around him, his cloak billowing in a light breeze.   
Ahead, smoke rose from the roof of the quaint cottage in which Link had lived nearly half his life, adjoined to the homestead were the stables, to the left stretched a large, fenced patch of grass, behind the cottage was Retsam Forest and Lake Sumac curving about a tor and to the right, the road stretched steeply upward to the Ancient Tech Lab. Behind him, Hateno rose and dipped wildly and far beyond Link could just make out the tips of the Dueling Peaks through the haze of the setting sun. A surge of nostalgia washed over him. He could still recall he and his friends frolicking in the water, sitting beneath the fading light cast down through the trees, wrestling one another in the grass, the love they shared with each other. He felt tears well in his eyes for the first time in years. Promptly, he dashed them away.   
Link took hold of Epona’s reins and brought her over to the stables. One pony and two coursers lay on their litters. The former was a bay and the latter a night black and chestnut brown. He wondered if… yes they were! They were the same horses he and his friends had ridden round this field so long ago. The bay was called Brandy if he remembered rightly, the brown Terra and the black Jet. Evan was nowhere to be seen nor heard so Link took it upon himself to secure Epona in a stall, hanging her saddle and saddle-bags from a couple of large, wooden pegs. He gave her a pat and an apple and walked round to the other horses that he once knew so well. To Link’s joy, it seemed that they knew him. They nuzzled him affectionately and licked his fingers as he stroked them. He relaxed if only slightly. No one besides from Link knew how he got Epona. She had been given to him after he had earned the Master Sword and he had rode out from Korok Forest atop her. They had been very close ever since, practically growing up alongside each other, but it was good to see these older horses nonetheless. He had decided to give them each an apple when he heard the cottage door creak open and the sparring of voices.   
“... take her yourself then Father, I’ll have no part in it.” One said in surely too low a voice to be Evan’s. _Dolt. His voice shan’t be as high as when you left._ Link scolded himself.   
“You’ll do as I say Evan. When you meet the age of wisdom; that’s when you can decide what you will or will not do.” A deeper voice said. Link recognised it to be Lurious’s, the man that had played his father for so many years. The door slammed shut and Evan came round the corner murmuring curses under his breath. Link could feel his pulse quickening with every second. His friend did not see him in the shadows of the stables at first, but he noticed Epona and as he came nearer to inspect her, Link stepped into the dusky, evening light. Evan’s eyes went wide and he took a small step back. He squinted slightly in amazement and then blinked his eyes in disbelief.   
“Link?” He said in almost a whisper. Link smiled and nodded softly. Before he knew what was happening, Evan had rushed toward him and pulled him into a fierce embrace. Link gave it back and they hugged so tightly that the air left his lungs. He squeezed his eyes shut with happiness and they laughed and then cried into one another's necks. Link did not know he could still feel such warmth and joy. The pressure he felt constantly had trapped him in such a miserable cage. But as he stood pressed so tightly against his best friend, he felt it all melt away as tears rolled down his cheeks. When they had both stopped their sobbing, they disentagled themselves awkwardly and brushed the tears away with their sleeves, all the while laughing breathlessly.   
“I’ve… I…” Evan stammered, then he gave up on talking, instead gripping Link’s shoulders and planting a firm kiss on his cheek. His lips were soft and full and immediately Link could feel the heat rushing to his face, memories fled back to him that were very different from the ones he had remembered earlier. Evan looked at him and batted his eyelashes in such a way that was exhilarating and disarming all at once.   
“I can’t believe you’re here! How I’ve missed you.” His mouth was set in a wide smile that put dimples in his cheeks.   
“I… I’ve missed you too. You and Rohne.” Link answered tentatively, still somewhat anxious and taken aback. After a few moment's silence Evan said “Look how you’ve grown! You're as handsome as ever!”   
“Look at yourself!” Link told him back. They both laughed and then blushed in synchrony. He had not lied. Evan’s appearance was arresting. He was smooth-skinned and slender, his hair a shock of auburn, his eyes a lively green and his ears finely pointed. His comley face was bronzed like the rest of him, no doubt from toiling hard beneath the summer sun. He stood some inches taller than Link, though they were both still rather short for their sixteen years. His tunic and breeches were folded up so far as to bare the sharp tan lines on his thighs and biceps and a strip of crimson silk was tied around his neck and dark with sweat. Concluding his attire were sandals that were woven around his ankles.  
Link realised this was a different boy from the timid, fleshy child he had left six years ago. This was no boy at all but a strapping young man.   
“So. How are you here?” Evan asked him and then, sadly, “Link, why did you never visit?” He felt guilt-stricken.   
“I’m so sorry Evan. I thought of you and Rohne so much. I felt awful that I never managed to come back to Hateno. Really I meant to, it’s just, my father is… well he’s so strict, and then I was appointed as the princess’s knight and -”   
“It’s fine Link. Truly, it is.” but the gaiety had gone from his voice. “I’m just so happy to see you, my father will be too. How long will you stay?”   
“No more than a week or so Evan. I must be back to Hyrule Castle by the solstice.” He answered miserably, earning a look of dejection from his friend. “I wish that I could stay longer, really I do. Even now the only reason I’ve been allowed to come here is to warn you and Rohne.”   
“Warn us?” Evan asked with a frown.   
Link looked around him. No one was close by that he could see and all that could be heard was the susurrus of leaves caught in the breeze, still…. “It’s best that we talk inside the cottage. Lurious should know as well.”  
“Fine.” Evan replied unhappily. He made to turn but stopped himself abruptly. “Oh Link, how I wish we could both be children again!” He exclaimed. “Do you remember? We would lay on the beach, bare skin browning in the sun, the sea breeze playing with our hair. I would call you fairy-boy and… I just…” He trailed off and then his green eyes found Link’s blue ones. Tears welled in them. “I’ve never found a love more real than between you, me and Rohne. Never forget those days Link, never forget the nights we would spend beside one another...” He stopped himself, which Link was grateful for; a nervous blush had started to creep into his cheeks yet again.   
He willed himself to stay strong. “Evan, I wish more than anything we could be so young and careless again, I would trade this sword for it - I never wanted it anyway - but we can’t and now… now you and Rohne are in danger and it’s all because of me.”   
Link looked down at his feet. He wondered whether Evan had seen the sword across his back. Had he heard that his ‘fairy-boy’ had discovered the sword that sealed the darkness? Had he heard that he was destined to destroy the evil that plagued Hyrule for eternity? Evan sniffled and nodded to himself.   
“Come inside and tell me Link.” And so Link followed him from the stables and round to the cottage, the only sound the crunching of their steps over gravel. Such contrition welled inside him that he felt nearly sickened. He knew how wrong, how cruel it was to come to his friend after all this time and not stay for more than a week or so. He had not lied when he told Evan that he wished he could stay longer. He yearned to escape the formality and ceaseless routine of the royal guard until the years of his youth were spent. _I cannot._ He told himself sternly. _The Goddess has gifted me this sword and in doing so has named me he who has the courage of the hero. I must not falter, not for a second. The fate of Hyrule rests upon my shoulders._  
The interior of the cottage, like everywhere else, had remained unaffected by Link’s departure. It was cosy, cluttered and clean all at once. Lurious was never one for frivolity and had always liked to keep a working homestead while Link lived beneath this roof, and seemingly he still did. The furniture was well arranged, the rushes sweet smelling and the worktable wiped clean. The only difference was that it seemed so much smaller than when he had left, as was to be expected of course. _The passage of time is always cruel._ Link reflected dully. No lanterns nor the fire had been lit, the only light was that of the evening sun pouring in through the windows and from the open door behind them, stretching their shadows long across the room.   
Link unslung the Master Sword from his back and took off his cloak. After receiving a nod of permission from Evan, the former he propped up in a corner and the latter he hung from a wooden peg . As they closed the door behind them, Lurious’s voice boomed from upstairs.   
“Evan, that you? I hope you’ve come to apologise Son.”   
“Come down Father, I’ve someone to show you.” After a few wordless grumbles, the wooden ceiling started to creak under Lurious’s footsteps and before long, he was down the stairs and pulling Link into a bone crushing hug. The man was thickly muscled and broad shouldered just as Link remembered him. He had grown fat in the gut, no doubt as a result of Evan being able to do more of the heavy lifting around the stables, but still he had the strength of a Lynel. His hair was bushy as his sons and he had grown a mighty beard for its complementation. He smelt of leather and horsehair.   
“Hahaha! Link! How long has it been? Five… no, six years!” He clutched his shoulders in strong hands and leant back inspecting him as if he were a newly born foal. His brow creased. “My, you have grown! A knight of Hyrule has come to our home Evan!” He called to his son who sat a few feet away, half-smiling as the reunion unfolded. Link wondered belatedly what the row he overheard earlier had been about. Lurious looked past Link’s shoulder at the spot where the Master Sword stood and then quickly back at him. “Aye, and as I hear it, not just any knight.”  
Link gave a wan smile but did not meet the man’s eyes. So Evan had known that Link wielded the sword that sealed the darkness. Or else Lurious had not told him; he found that unlikely. He stole a glance over at his friend but his expression did not change.   
“Look at this finery!” The man said as he eyed Link’s Champion’s Tunic. In truth, his attire was quite modest compared to those he spent the majority of his time with. Still, it had been hand-made by the princess herself with the richest fabrics and no doubt seemed incredibly ostentatious to a humble Hateno stable-master. Suddenly he found himself treasuring Evan as a friend even more. He had not exclaimed about his clothes nor position nor sword. Merely he had greeted him as an old friend, with whom he had spent nearly half his life. Obviously it was no fault of Lurious’s and Link smiled politely at him.   
“So, Link, what brings you to Hateno after all this time?”  
“No pleasant business unfortunately. Might we sit?”   
Soon, the three had arranged themselves around the dining table and the fire crackled loudly beside them. Outside the sky took on the blues and purples of twilight. At Lurious’s insistence, Link had been provided with food and drink: a plate of bread, cheese and salted beef with a tankard of ale to wash it all down. Father and son ate and drank alongside him all the while listening gravely to his warnings. He struggled to find a balance between alerting them adequately of the Yiga Clan’s threat and not overly disconcerting them. From the looks on their faces he managed well. He thought there was something in their eyes though, like a kind of recognition. _I fool myself. The mists of misery cloud my judgement._  
An awkward silence settled over them when he had finished. Evan’s face was rather blank, Lurious brooded over his ale and Link sat there silently. In an attempt to ease their shared discomfort, he snatched the bread from his plate, cut himself a slice of cheese and chewed it down slowly. After a few moments Evan leant on the table and said “Link, there’s... something you ought to know.” The boy stole a quick glance at his father who grimaced and then took a deep swig of his ale. “Rohne’s not here. She left Hateno about a month ago.” Link’s heart sank in dismay.   
“What?” He asked stupidly, making the word longer than it should be. “Where did she go? Why did she leave the village?” He was incredulous. Last he remembered, Rohne had been so happy here. The girl had come to Hateno with her parents from Lurelin village, Lothor her father was called, and Shaila her mother. Rohne had found a five year old Link and Evan playing on the beach late in Spring one afternoon, and after that the three had become inextricable.   
“Her father, Lothor he… he was captured by the Yiga.” Evan said, his voice bitter. “We know they took him. The Eye was painted in blood on the side of his fishing boat.” Link cupped his face in his hands, his elbows hard on the table. He knew that he could not have prevented such a thing from happening, knew there would be consequences to his knighting, knew that all the repercussions were not his doing and yet an insurmountable guilt surged within him. ‘A knight must choose solitude or penitence. There is no inbetween’. His father’s phantom words echoed in his head. He had told him that once from behind the flickering flames of a campfire. Link had not believed him at the time; the man had always had such severe austerity to him. Now, however, he wished more than anything that he had indeed paid heed to his words. He had departed from Castletown some two weeks ago, not thinking that the delay between his knighting and then could do any harm. How wrong he had been. He could still picture Lothor. The lean, dark-skinned fisherman whom the scent of the sea always clung to. He was stern but kindly and Rohne had loved him dearly.   
“She packed up and left a few days after. She swore she would find him.” Evan went on, evidently oblivious to the terrible danger that Rohne was now in. Out of the three, she had always been the most audacious. But this was not bold or brave. This was foolhardy. She could - no - she would be killed or worse. A cold fury threatened to seize him then. Suddenly Link ached to leave the royal guard and not return till he had cut the throats of every Yiga Member in Hyrule. He could butcher every one of them and burn their hideouts to the ground. He could lay the souls of the men, women and children whose lives had been hacked apart in hopes of finding the boy with the courage of the hero to rest. His anger must have shown because Lurious placed a large hand on Link’s shoulder and said “Now Link. This is none of your doing. It’s those Yiga whoresons, and them alone.” Link knew he was right and willed himself to stay calm but could not completely keep the ferocity from his voice. He looked sharply up at Evan.  
“How could you let her leave?” he demanded of him.   
“I asked her to stay.” Evan replied carefully as if he were in some sort of stupor. “Told her that chasing after the Yiga was like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. She wouldn’t listen.”  
“That’s it? That’s all you said?”   
“You don’t understand Link.”   
“What don’t I understand?” He was struggling to control his temper. Why was Evan avoiding his question, he would not even meet his eyes.   
“Rohne and I we… we fought. About a year ago.” When Link saw the pain in his eyes, immediately the flame of frustration within him was doused. Evan shook his head slowly from side to side as if trying to erase the memory from his mind or perhaps take back time altogether. Lurious abruptly grunted something and stood up, his chair shrieking over the floor so loudly Link winced.   
“I’ll take my leave.” He announced to no one in particular and then to Link, “We appreciate you coming to warn us Son. When Lothor was taken we knew something queer was afoot, but now you’ve confirmed it. Evan and I will be sure to keep a lookout and make no mention of you.” He looked to his son.   
“Set some bedding out for Link in your room.” Link opened his mouth to protest. He had really planned on staying at the Great Ton Pu inn; he had more than enough rupees. It seemed Lurious had suspected his objections however and he cut across him, “I’ll hear no nonsense about you staying at the Inn.” He slapped a hand on his back, which made Link jump slightly. He chided himself silently for the fact that even after being invited into someone’s home and eating their bread he was still so highly strung. Lurious strode up the stairs in his inelegant way to resume whatever he had paused to greet Link.   
And so the knight looked across the table at the stable-boy, trying to project his sympathy. _What could ruin such a friendship as we three once shared?_ He asked himself with depressing curiosity. Evan told him.   
When he said they had ‘fought’, Link assumed that it had been one single row. He knew how passionate both his friends were, especially Rohne. It had been nothing like that though to hear Evan tell it. Instead, the two had grown apart for years, soon after Link had left Hateno. As the months went by, they would talk less and less and disagree more and more until the friends that had once been effective siblings simply greeted one another with no more than a nod in passing. Instead of shock or surprise, Link felt merely a dull despondency. _It was puerile to believe all would be the same after so long a time._  
Is this what he and his childhood friends had become then? A desolate stable-boy desperate to relive days gone, a forlorn knight burdened with the legendary courage of the hero and a girl so consumed by grief that she would give pursuit to an insurmountable evil?   
_No._ A voice whispered inside of him, echoing round and round his head, growing louder and louder. Where he had been filled with woe and helplessness, there was now a burning resolution. He nodded to himself gently and then looked up at Evan with a mettlesome smile growing on his face. Even if he did not know how to remedy this situation, he would not drown in sorrow any longer.   
“Why have your eyes brightened? What are you smiling at.?” His friend asked him with a frown.   
“I’ll not give myself to sadness any longer.” He began. He reached out over the table and clutched his friend's hand in both of his. They met eyes and an old recognition and respect blossomed between them. “I have a plan. Well sort of. I’m not certain yet but, if you’re willing to try to make amends with Rohne then…”   
“I’ll do it.” Evan interrupted and then they were grinning at one another as if they were once again children. While Rohne’s predicament gnawed at him, Link knew wallowing in consternation would not help. The foundations of a plan were forming in his mind. He could not search for Rohne given his royal requirements, but Evan could. His new resolve was exhilarating and as he slept that night, a dream that he had not had in a long time came to him.   
_He and his father ride double over green grass, alongside a babbling stream and beneath a colonnade of oak trees. Sunlight filters through the leaves and down onto his face where tears roll over his cheeks. “Why couldn’t I stay father?” He cries helplessly. After a while the man answers him in his hard-nosed way. “Two wolves rip at one another inside our minds' Link. One named Despair and the other Determination.” The boy sniffles as he wipes away his tears with his wrists. His father’s enigmatic statement infuriates him and he says tigerishly “Oh? And which one wins then?” The knight heaves a breath and lifts his head to the sky. His stony visage melts into a grin and he says slowly “Whichever one you feed Link. Whichever one you feed.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Love it? Hate it? Tell me in the comments! I hope I've written a good introduction that establishes key themes like sorrow, nostalgia and the reluctance to grow-up. This first chapter is obviously told from Link's POV, the next will most likely be Evan's and it will continue to change unless I decide it starts to hurt the narrative. Similar to ASOIAF, at the beginning I will always say what character the chapter belongs to. Going forward, it will usually be either Link, Evan or Rohne however some chapters may be someone else, e.g an important member of the Yiga Clan. My objective with this story is to create a highly personal, emotional and investing narrative. I love to develop interesting and flawed characters and play with dark, unorthodox ideas; hopefully this story will do just that.


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